Rutgers’ dumpster fire rekindled

After a relatively quiet fall for the New Jersey State School, both on the field and off, new allegations of player abuse are being reported. This time the allegations are against the football team’s Defensive Coordinator, Dave Cohen, who according to former defensive back Jevon Tyree used abusive language and made threats to the freshman.

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According to NBC Sports, Tyree further alleges that “the assistant coach’s actions and behavior was spread to other coaches and resulted in Tyree’s position on the team dropping and eventually leading to his exclusion from team meetings”. Tyree has since left the team.

In fairness to Rutgers, although one incident that occurred during a study hall session was apparently witnessed by several of Tyree’s teammates, these claims have not yet been substantiated. The University released a statement Friday night, in which Rutgers said Cohen apologized “the following day for his participation in the escalation of the banter” and that head coach Kyle Flood reprimanded him. The statement continued that “at no time was there any threat of physical violence, which was verified by an academic counselor, who was present in the room.”

The player’s family has requested a full investigation by University and are pursuing legal action against the Assistant Coach.

It’s been almost a year since Rutgers announced their decision to join the Big Ten, during which time the University has been mired in multiple controversies involving: physical/verbal abuse against players on the Men’s basketball team, the resulting firing/resigning of their Athletic Director, the botched hiring of the AD’s replacement, and a very disappointing football season.

The dumpster fire continues and one can only wonder if the Big Ten has any reservations about their new addition.

3 responses to “Rutgers’ dumpster fire rekindled”

I agree that the B1G’s only concern is the bottom line, and adding new media markets should be very lucrative for them, but you have to admit that the Black Knights could be a black eye for the Conference if these controversies and negative publicity continue.

I sincerely doubt that the B1G will reverse course on adding Rutgers and Maryland, but it could add an interesting wrinkle for future expansion if new teams have to be of high moral character as well as offering new media markets or survive some kind of probation period before full enrollment in the conference.

Then again, they clearly don’t care about adding on-field quality (Maryland, Rutgers) so why should they care about scandals either…

I agree. The ACC for the most part has been able to avoid scandals & black eyes except for the recent issues with N Carolina & Miami. I think the ACC took into consideration the recent troubles UConn was experiencing while deciding on Maryland replacement and that helped Louisville get the bid. The B1G didn’t seem to take such things into consideration with their expansion and I thought they were pretty silent on the Penn St case in contrast.